Watchdog Panel's Power Over Administrator Confirmed

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's reorganization of the state's so-called watchdog agencies has caused more trouble and distraction than the "reform" is worth.

Fortunately, state Attorney General George Jepsen has recently injected a bit of order into the chaos.

We're referring in this instance to the feud between the Governmental Accountability Commission and David Guay, the former executive administrator of the Office of Governmental Accountability.

The OGA is the umbrella under which the nine watchdog agencies, such as the Freedom of Information Commission and the Office of State Ethics, were consolidated, pretty much against their will. A small amount of savings and general disharmony have ensued over the three years since.

The executive administrator is supposed to supervise the "back office" functions of the OGA, although Mr. Guay had grander designs on the job. The GAC — with representatives from each of the nine original agencies — was established to recommend names to the governor to consider for executive administrator. It was also given the power statutorily to terminate the employment of the executive administrator.

Mr. Guay has since been named by Mr. Malloy as the executive director of the State Contracting Standards Board — but not before he got in a shoving match with the GAC over the question of whether the commission had the authority to evaluate his job performance. It said yes. He said no, and refused to cooperate in his job evaluation.

When asked for his opinion by the GAC, the attorney general gave the only reasonable answer there is, even though the commission's authority to periodically review the job performance of the executive administrator is not spelled out in the statutes: Of course. The power to terminate presupposes the authority to evaluate.

"To conclude otherwise would create a nonsensical and unworkable obstacle to the GAC's exercise of its termination authority," Mr. Jepsen's opinion said.

It's a small victory for the desirable goal of independence for the watchdogs. Better yet would be to remove the governor completely from the process of picking the executive administrator. (The governor last week appointed Shelby J. Brown of East Hartford to the position.)

Even better yet would be to undo the consolidation and let these important agencies again be independent.